Luke 15:1-10: Lost and Found

INTRODUCTION

I once had a friend who said, “I don’t believe in forgiveness.” She said, “I believe that we’ll have to answer for everything.”

She said that because she knew that she was a good person. Her conscience was clear. She said, “I’ve always done the best I could. If that’s not good enough, that’s just too bad!”

I asked her whether she hadn’t ever fallen short of what she should have been.

She said, “Well, maybe I get an A- rather than an A.”

My friend was actually a good person. She didn’t lie or steal or talk dirty. She was pleasant and thoughtful.

But the Bible says that we are all sinners, and all of us fall short of the glory of God.

When I was young, preachers talked more about sin than they do nowadays.

They assumed that people without Christ knew that they were sinners, and they would try to bring about in their hearers a conviction of sinfulness, and then they would tell about God’s offer of forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

At least, this was my experience.

Today, except for some sensitive souls, most people seem to go through life with clear consciences. Oh sure, we know we aren’t perfect but we assume that we are as good as our neighbors.

I had a Christian friend who hated the hymn “Amazing Grace.” You know, the hymn that goes: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”

She declared: “I’m not a wretch!”

When John Newton wrote that hymn, that wasn’t such a hard sell. In the 18th century people were more aware of how far they fell short of what they should be.

I used to work in the state prison in Mt. Pleasant. You would be surprised at the excuses the inmates made for their criminal behavior. Most of them didn’t think of themselves as bad people. They would say things like: “Everybody does stuff—I just got caught.”

But sometimes our inmates would realize that they did need forgiveness, and then they would listen to the gospel and respond to God’s call.

Several years ago a book came out with the title: I’m OK; You’re OK. It was a best seller. People like to be told that they’re OK.

After all, I’m better than most people. Doesn’t that make me good enough?

The curious thing is that while most of us are blind to our own sin, we are very much aware of the sins of other people.

Psychologists say this is an example of “self-serving bias.” Your self-serving bias leads you to make excuses for your shortcomings while condemning others for the same faults.

If we succeed in life, we attribute our success to our hard work and our good character.

If someone else succeeds, we are more likely to attribute his success to good luck.

People tend to attribute their failure to their bad luck, but their neighbor’s failure to laziness or a poor work ethic.

This reminds me of the story Jesus told about the very religious man who went to the temple and stood up and prayed—out loud, so that everyone could hear: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men: extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I get.”

That story is almost comical because we can’t read it without seeing how eaten up with pride that Pharisee was—and how much contempt he had for those less fortunate!

The Pharisee thought his prayer was all about thankfulness—but it was really all about congratulating himself because he was so virtuous—so especially better than other people.

Jesus was much more successful with tax collectors, addicts, prostitutes, low-lifes, and other riff-raff. They knew they were sinners. They knew they needed God.

I have been reading John Wesley’s journal. John Wesley lived about the same time as George Washington. He toured England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland on horseback, preaching to gospel, mostly to the poor.

In those days, there were multitudes of poor people. They didn’t go to church. Their lives were hard. They lived in squalor. They drank a lot. They had bad habits.

John Wesley told them God loved them, that Jesus died for them, and he called them to forgiveness. Many responded. Wesley formed them into groups that would meet weekly to talk about “the state of their souls.” Their lives would dramatically improve.

Not many of the wealthy classes—the people who went to church—attended Wesley’s open air meetings. They thought they were good enough. They were like the Pharisee in Jesus’s parable.

Our son, the pastor, who lives in the Twin Cities, told me about a retired doctor in his church who volunteers every Friday at a social service agency.

He interviews people who come in for help. They ask him to pray with them.

He told our son how much he enjoyed this volunteer work. He said, “My respectable colleagues don’t ask me to pray with them. But these people know that they need God.”

Luke 15:1-10

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’ Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.’ Just so I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

I. A sheep and a coin

A. The first story is about a lost sheep

It wasn’t the shepherd’s fault the sheep went astray.

Sheep are just naturally irresponsible.

They nibble a clump of grass and then they see another and move over to nibble it, and so forth, until they nibble their way to lostness.

A lost sheep was in great danger. The shepherd must find it or it might fall over a cliff, or be eaten by a wolf, or maybe become part of someone else’s flock.

Like sheep, we spend our lives surrounded by dangers—a hundred things that threaten to destroy our happiness.

B. The other story is about a lost coin

The woman had only 10 of the little silver coins, one came up missing.

The coin was a Greek coin, called a drachma.

It was worth about a day’s wage for a working man; it was precious to her.

To understand the woman’s actions, we must understand that the typical house of an ordinary person in Jesus’ time was one room, with a dirt floor, and no windows.

It was dark in there, so she had to light her little lamp, and sweep and inspect every corner until she found her coin.

II. Jesus told these stories so that we might understand something about ourselves.

A. We are lost. We are lost to God and lost to ourselves.

God doesn’t have the place in our lives that he should have.

God loves us and wants to make us happy, but he can only bless us when we respond to his love.

We humans just naturally wander. We don’t know where we are or where we’re going.

The story is told about the great philosopher Schopenhauer. He was sitting one day on a park bench, meditating on the meaning of life.

A policeman came up to him and demanded: “What are you doing here?”

The philosopher looked up and said wistfully, “I wish I knew.”

So we wander through life seeking meaning, and happiness, and security—but feeling more and more emptiness and disappointment.

If I think that this life is all there is, then, when I come near the end of life, all I have to look forward to is sickness, pain, weakness, confusion, and finally death.

B. But to say that we are “lost” is also a great compliment.

It means that we are very precious to God.

As the shepherd faced danger to find his lost sheep, so God goes to infinite pains to find a lost sinner.

As the woman went to a lot of pains to find a relatively insignificant coin, so God goes to a lot of trouble to find his lost children.

C. Jesus connects the sinner’s repentance to his being found by God.

To repent isn’t just to be sorry. To repent is to turn around on the road that was leading us away from God and to go the other way—the way back to God.

Repentance is the other side of faith. Repentance is to turn away from sin; faith is to turn to God.

Repentance and belief always go together in the Bible.

III. But the main point of these two parables is how happy it makes God when he finds us—when we respond to his love.

A. Jesus says that when one sinner repents, all heaven is filled with shouts of joy. Even the angels are happy.

“I tell you,” Jesus says, “there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

B. In the little Old Testament book of Zephaniah, a renewed Israel celebrates its God and God exults over his people. The prophet writes (3:17):

“God will rejoice over you with gladness,

he will renew you in his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing

as on a day of festival.”

CONCLUSION

The story is told of a carefree little girl who lived at the edge of a forest, where she loved to play and explore and take long adventurous journeys.

But one day she journeyed too deep into the forest and got lost. As the shadows grew long, the girl grew worried. So did her parents.

They searched the forest for her, cupping their hands and calling out. But there was no answer. In the gathering night the parents’ search grew more intense.

The little girl tried one path after another, but none looked familiar and none led to her home.

Her skin was welted from the switching of limbs as she pushed her way through the overgrowth. Her knees were scraped from tripping in the dark. Her face was streaked from the tears she had cried.

She called for her parents, but the forest seemed to swallow her words.

After hours of trying to find her way home, the exhausted girl came to a clearing in the forest.  The exhausted girl curled up beside a big rock and fell asleep.

By this time the parents had enlisted the help of friends and neighbors, even strangers from town, to help them search for their lost little girl. In the course of the night many of the searchers went home.

But not the girl’s father. He searched all night and on into the next morning. In the first light of dawn, he spotted his daughter, asleep by the rock in the middle of the clearing.

He ran as fast as his legs would take him, calling her name. The noise startled the girl awake. She rubbed her eyes. And reaching out to him, she caught his embrace.

“Daddy,” she exclaimed, “I found you!”

Who was happier: the little girl or her father? I would say, both.

If you are seeking God, remember that God is seeking you. And if you are seeking God and God is seeking you, you’ll soon be found.

And God and the angels will be happy, and you will be happy—you will be happy forever with Jesus.

I remember something I heard a preacher say long ago when I was a child. He said, “A seeking sinner and a seeking Savior will not be long apart.”